#history — vanity

[ciderbird]

academic bias is so funny because you’ll be reading about the same historical event and one person is like “Despite the troubles that befell his homeland and near constant criticism of the court King Blorbo remained strong in the face of adversity” and the other one is like “after letting his people carry the brunt of his cringefail decisions Blorbo the Shitface refused to listen to any reason and continued to be a warmongering piece of shit. Also he was ugly.”

[diioonysus]

oh they know they're that bitch

[eirene]

Carmen Dell’Orefice

1953, Vanity Fair Lingerie

Photographer: Mark Shaw

[fleeglefazbeagle]

🔪Butcher Vanity🥩

OG screenshot:

Context for this version of Secret History Tails :

Basically, it's an AU where Sonic met Secret History Tails not at Sega HQ but rather some seemingly abandoned house.

Instead of Sonic being an employee, he's just some guy who pretty much encounters a rather friendly fellow(SH Tails) who apparently eats people(only jerks, don't worry).

I'll go more into depth in another post.

[deadpresidents]

This is an incredible story that I have never heard told in as much detail as this recent article by James Robenalt in Vanity Fair!

[philosophybits]

One cannot suppress a certain indignation when one sees men’s actions on the great world-stage and finds, beside the wisdom that appears here and there among individuals, everything in the large woven together from folly, childish vanity, even from childish malice and destructiveness. In the end, one does not know what to think of the human race, so conceited in its gifts.

Immanuel Kant, Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose

[ingravinoveritas]

I recently had this link shared with me by one of my lovely friends here in the fandom, and found it so compelling that I wanted to share it with all of you.

This is a recent article from Vanity Fair about Cary Grant and Randolph Scott, both iconic actors from the era we now call "Old Hollywood," and it details their extremely interesting--both by the standards of the era and today--relationship. It's a long read, but more than worth it.

For those who may not know, Cary Grant was an English-born American actor and iconic leading man, and Randolph Scott was an American actor most known for appearing in Westerns. Both men were married to women/had children at varying points in their lives, but by some accounts (and especially what is chronicled in this article), they were the loves of each other's lives, even though being openly queer was next to impossible at the time, and would've been looked at as a career-ending (and maybe even life-ending) move.

There also seem to be quite a few parallels between Cary and Randolph 90 years ago and Michael and David today. The two men actually lived together for a number of years, during which the press of the day chose to portray them as "just two fun-loving bachelors waiting to find the right gal," all while Grant in particular starred in films with queer-flavored undertones that were both bold and downright dangerous in the era of the Hays Code. They continued living together when Grant was first married to his first wife, Virginia Cherrill (and after they divorced), and fun fact: While Grant was married, Scott moved right next door...so they were, in fact, neighbors.

Here are a few other excerpts that very much reminded me of Michael and David, for your consideration. (FYI that "Archie Leach" was Cary Grant's birth name before he changed it to his stage name.) This first one calls to mind the Radio Times calling Michael and David a "handsome couple" on the night of the NTAs in 2021:

This next one of course made me think of Michael and David talking on David's podcast (skip to the 1:25 mark) in 2019 about hating photo shoots and how Michael flat-out refused to answer questions at one point and only got through it because of David:

And this last one features a quote from a close friend about Grant and Scott that nearly made my heart skip an entire beat. For reasons that will soon be very, very obvious:

What is also remarkable about this article (though not necessarily in a good way) is the mention of how little has changed since Grant and Scott's time. How even today, any actor who comes out as any flavor of queer is immediately looked at differently, and how the fear of both professional and personal repercussions keeps people in the closet for so many reasons.

These were the parts of the article that stood out to me the most, but as always I would love to hear from my followers with your thoughts and takes on the parallels above or anything else that you find interesting...

[thatshowthingstarted]

Unknown artist, “Memento Mori” (c. 100 BCE),

Mosaic, 18 1/2 x 41 1/2 inches (47 x 41.5 cm),

Held at the Naples National Archaeological Museum 

[leatherandmossprints]

‘Vanity’ by Auguste Toulmouche (French, 1829–1890)

[snailpilled-and-based]

Woodrow kills and eats Teddy Roosevelt for the one millionth time 🍴🍴🍴🍴

[edwardian-girl-next-door]

~ Théobald Chartran, Candida, Marchioness of Tweeddale. Published in Vanity Fair on 1 March 1884.

via pixels.com

[eirene]

A woman from Bali with a pink headdress.

Artist: Miguel Covarrubias

Vanity Fair Cover, February 1st, 1936

[regicidal-defenestration]

A good book is one that you come out of thinking "I want to make something that makes someone else feel the way this made me feel"

[hawklovesskippy]

Matt walking the red carpet at the 2025 Vanity Fair Oscar Party | March 2, 2025

📷: Warren Alfie Baker (Matt’s stylist)

[the-golden-vanity]

Two Years Before The Mast reading update: Herman Melville really read the chapter where Hope decides Dana is his aikane and thought, "hmmmm... I can make this gayer," huh?

[jellysshitpoems]

Thoughts on the Chernobyl HBO miniseries (assuming you’ve watched it)? I really enjoyed it but I’ve heard that some big parts of it were inaccurate

Sorry this took awhile to get to I had classes all day

I really liked the show, a lot of it was fairly accurate, but it’s a tv show so of course some things were played up for dramas sake and shock value. The only part of it that really stuck out to me was the way they portrayed radiation poisoning, it’s not completely false I suppose… but its definitely not accurate lmao

It’s been awhile since I watched it, I prefer actual documentaries when it comes to real stories, but from what I remember they showed the firefighters skin as like translucent almost??? Which isn’t how that works. They also showed in one of the scenes a power plant worker bleeding immediately after holding a door open to which also isn’t accurate. Radiation sickness technically can cause bleeding like that, but it was way too soon for it to be happening. I could go on, but radiation sickness isn’t the most fun topic

The only thing I specifically disliked about the show was the public response, which isn’t really the fault of the creators. The amount of tourists doing stupid shit in the exclusion zone/Pripyat just makes me cringe. People moving untouched items, painting radioactive things ‘fun’ colours for cool photo ops, taking radioactive materials as souvenirs… awful. I even remember this one ‘sexy’ photo in a decontamination suit posted on instagram that was taken in the middle of the city. Its disrespectful. Not to mention A HEALTH HAZARD. But Chernobyl tourism is a different topic entirely.

Buy yeah, thinking back to the show radiation sickness is the only inaccuracy I can really remember, other then the miners getting naked in the tunnels, that didn’t happen, but it was funny so Ill give them that!